6 – A Complication Called Romance
Nate waved to the blonde figure in the distance as he walked back towards home. Once he had turned around a loud crack behind him told Nate that Erin was gone. Ever since he had started dating Erin, Nate had felt very different from his usual self. Almost like a different person.
He smiled at the thought of his pretty little girlfriend; already she was changing his life, clearly for the better. Nate walked into the garden to find the house strangely dark, lights out and looked around in confusion. Where was everybody?
Nate shrugged; their absence gave him time to write a letter to Erin. He had to go stay at the manor next week and wouldn't see Erin the entire time. Nate sighed in irritation; his parents were suddenly extremely annoying with their demands. He was in his graduating year! Who did they think they were?
The door was as ever unlocked and Nate took the sharp left which led into his bedroom then shut the door behind him. He didn't want to be interrupted.
Dear Erin, He began and then quickly fell into the rhythm of the letter writing whatever came to mind. It must have been something like half an hour later when Nate was startled out of his focus by noise in the house.
"-Horrible I know." Andee, his mother, was saying.
"Where the hell is Nate anyway?" Lilah's voice clearly said.
"In here!" Nate called before returning his letter.
"And why did you feel it necessary to not come to dinner tonight?" Andee asked opening his door.
"It's just dinner, I'll eat later." Nate said shrugging why did she care?
"It wasn't "just dinner" tonight we were going to the burrow as you well knew, or would have if you hadn't been closeted with that blonde girl all day everyday."
"Do you have a problem with Erin?" Nate demanded, suddenly angry. It was his choice to date whomever he pleased!
"She's an idiot but I can deal with her. It's you that's the problem." Andee said with a dismissive wave.
"An idiot?" Nate echoed furiously.
"Nate your girlfriend isn't exactly the Einstein of witches, but if you want to date her, go ahead. You just need to prioritise a little." Dean said gently behind Andee.
"I am prioritising." Nate said glaring at his father.
"Fine then. You're grounded, no visitors, no owls for two weeks." Andee said, tone brooking no arguments.
"What?" Nate demanded.
"You can't see or speak to Erin for the next two weeks, you also can't go to the manor with Lilah. Grow up Nathaniel and then we might consider your relationship with Erin as serious. Right now she's just some girl." And with that Andee walked away, leaving Nate with no time to argue.
"Dad –" He began, seeing Dean still standing there.
"No Nate. Your mother's right. Erin has been your girlfriend less than a month, Delilah dislikes her and your friends barely know her, until you can incorporate her in your life without her becoming your life it's a childish relationship." Dean said firmly cutting Nate off and then he went in search of his fuming wife.
Nate blinked in shock. His relationship with Erin was serious. What were they on about? And Delilah hating Erin? Hardly.
"Oh Merlin Lilah did you hear that?" Nate asked opening the door between their two bedrooms.
"Well obviously." Delilah said without looking up from her desk.
"You hate Erin, right." Nate scoffed.
"Yeah, it is right." Delilah agreed nodding.
"What?" Nate asked in disbelief.
"I've always hated Erin. She's a self-centred airhead." Delilah said shrugging.
"Oh and Marie' isn't?" Nate asked, getting rapidly angry. What was wrong with his family?
"Marie' is your friend, she is also going through a really shit time right now. Of course you wouldn't know seeing as your avoiding all of us but Marie's parents tried to kill her brother last week and she is now the guardian of her brother and sister. On top of that Marie' is a Ravenclaw and gets better grades than you do, so if she's an idiot then you're as dumb as a brick because she helps you with half your assignments." Delilah said, voice getting louder until she was yelling at him, yelling at him for the first time in Nate's memory.
"Erin is sweet –"
"Erin you think this is about Erin? No Nate it's about you! You are so desperate that the rest of your life doesn't matter because you have a girlfriend – even if she is a girlfriend way below anyone's standards. Now get the hell out of my room." Delilah said, voice cold as ice, pointing at the door.
"Fine! Bitch!" Nate yelled back, slamming the door behind him. Furious he fell onto his bed and stared at the blank wall as he always did, angry at his parents and twin. Why were they being such fuckwits? As he stared at the wall he noticed something odd about the door between his and Delilah's rooms. As he watched the door between them shrunk, smaller and smaller, until finally it was completely gone.
Nate got off his bed and put his hands on the wall that used to be a door. Delilah had transfigured the door.
"Lilah?" He called softly but to no reply. What was going on?
"Hey." She said smiling up at him, her big brown eyes warm.
"Hey to you too." Chase said smiling down at the tiny girl. "You've been good I hope?"
"You saw me yesterday Chase." She said snorting in a rather ungraceful way.
"But yesterday I couldn't do this." Chase said leaning down and kissing her lips lightly.
"Admittedly that might have been a little bit much for everyone seeing as they don't even know we're dating." She granted leading him to a seat nearby.
"That's going to be an awkward conversation." Chase commented.
"Let's save it until after we go back to Hogwarts – just in case." She said in a small voice, eyes full of doubt.
"I'm not going to leave you just because you're younger." He said shaking his head at her. "You're the most beautiful, funny and interesting girl I know."
"That's what you say now." She said shaking her head.
"Trust me, I'll still be saying it ten years from now. " Chase assured her kissing her again, her lips bowing up in a smile despite her worries.
"As long as you're here now I'm happy." She said with another, more genuine smile.
"That's good because I wouldn't want to risk getting hexed by your brothers and Dad for nothing." He teased shoving her lightly.
"Chase you're an idiot." She said with a grin.
"But you still like me don't you?" He asked giving her his best puppy dog eyes.
"Yes Chase, I still like you."
"Good, because I like you too Lily."
"-And then he said he "was prioritising" he rates his girlfriend of three – well four now – weeks as more important than his family of always." Delilah finished furiously.
"Zhat's bullshit!" Marie' burst out, every bit as angry as Delilah.
"I have to agree that right now Nate's being an ass. He's my best mate but that doesn't stop him being the world's biggest ass." James said nodding.
Ruby glanced at her boyfriend and saw in his posture and expression that James was completely serious. He was angry with Nate, and Ruby had to admit she was too. Didn't he understand how lucky he was to have a mother that cared? Apparently not seeing as he was shunning her for grounding him.
Ruby shook her head as her friends continued their rant.
"Erin's relationship's never end well. She takes everything from the guy and then ditches him when he no longer suits her purposes, which means as soon as she decides Nate can't afford that house she wants him to buy – which he can't – she'll dump him." Louis said shaking his head.
"She's just a girl. She isn't worth destroying his whole life over, especially seeing as they haven't put in the hard yards. They're still in honeymoon mode." Freddy said in a derisive voice. "Nate is being an idiot. Charlotte was actually fairly similar, only she wasn't a bitch to you guys and my family."
"I say we side with Delilah. Andee and Dean are right. He needs to back off a little and –"
"And I shall not be so much as looking at 'im for a very long time eef I am such a self-centred air'ead. At za moment zheir isn't anything Nate could do to get me to acknowledge 'is existence." Marie' snapped furiously.
"What he said about you Marie' was –" Ruby began.
"Not anything Nate would say." Delilah finished for her. "Or the words of a friend. As far as I'm concerned he is just some boy that lives with us and if I have to call him anything I'll call him just that – boy."
"That will really piss him off." Reid commented smirking.
"He deserves it." Chase said firmly. "I don't see any reason for us to reach out to him, at least not until he's become a real person again."
"You mean until he's lost the annoying baggage." Louis said sardonically.
"Which iz to say Erin."
"BITCH!" Delilah said in a loud voice. "Oh I'm sorry, I meant agreed."
The rest of the summer passed awkwardly. Nate completely ignored his friends for siding with Delilah and his parents, which rather depressed Delilah who while stubbornly refusing to pretend to like Erin, was still badly affected by the sudden loss of her twin.
Marie' would still jump at the sight of an owl fearing it brought bad news from California and that anxiety gave her a much different disposition to her usual light-heartedness. And although Ruby was most of the time unaffected by it she occasional fell victim to a bout of self-pity when she allowed herself to think of her mother.
James sighed and rolled over again trying not to think about the crying fits Ruby had been prone to over the last several weeks.
Instead he was reminded of Freddy's frankly depressing demeanour. He was getting over Charlotte of course, but in the meantime he was nothing like James' prankster cousin. Then there was Chase, he wasn't acting any different really he was just – distant. Altogether it was a relief for James whenever Louis came over for some man time.
"How have things been for you lately?" James asked grinning at Louis as he sat down.
"Pretty good. I've mostly been seeing Clarisse and a few other girls but mainly Clarisse.' Louis said nodding with an evil smirk, which spoke volumes about what Louis and Clarisse did together.
"So she's an almost girlfriend?" James asked eyebrows raised in surprise.
"I think fuck-buddy is a more accurate term really –" Louis said and the pair of them burst out laughing.
James turned onto his back staring at the ceiling. Things weren't that bad. Ruby hadn't cried all week.
"Hey James?"
"Yeah Rubes?"
"Want to play truth or dare?" Ruby asked smiling at him wickedly.
"Sure –" James began only to be cut off by his brother's sardonic comment.
"Please why don't you two just be honest about it, if you're playing, its snog or fuck." Al said with a grin as he paused outside James' bedroom door.
"No one asked your opinion Al." James said rolling his eyes.
"Just don't forget the silencing charms!" Lily's voice rang out and then she and Al laughed.
"Shut up!" Ruby said in unison with James and then they smiled at each other.
"Ugh, excuse me while I go throw up." Al said walking away.
"Don't come back." James warned him shutting the door before turning back to his beautiful girlfriend who was smiling at him from the bed.
James sat up sighing defeat. He would never get to sleep. Getting out of bed he went to get one of his books and knocked an old Daily Prophet off the ground as he did so, stirring up a memory of something unsettling Wendy had said the other day. It was just as Reid and Abbey were being particularly disgusting…
"Please, guys, we are here you know." Ruby said looking away in disgust.
"Hypocrite." Louis said in a singsong voice, smirking.
"Shut up." Ruby said throwing a book at his head, which missed Louis by a fraction.
"Suck!" Louis said laughing at her.
"Have you heard about all the problems at Azkaban?" Wendy asked nodding at the newspaper she held in her hand.
"Yeah Dad mentioned it once or twice." James said nodding.
"Apparently it's only the death eaters that are stirring up trouble." Reid added, finally detaching himself from Abbey.
"I did read about zhat." Marie' agreed quietly.
"I wonder what's going on?" Wendy mused staring down at the picture on the front – it was one of Voldemort giving a speech long ago.
"It can't be anything important." Louis said with a shrug. "The adults don't seem too worried."
"All the same. I think we should be careful this year – we don't know who was a death eater sympathiser do we?" Wendy said in a warning tone.
"Don't worry about it Wendy. They'll let us know if it's something serious." James said waving his hand dismissively. "The Prophet isn't too reliable anyway."
"You're probably right." Wendy agreed putting down the paper but her expression made it clear she wasn't completely convinced.
Hopping back into bed James hoped everything would return to normal when they got back on the Hogwarts express tomorrow morning. Nate and Erin wouldn't last beyond the sunshine.